Marriott is huge, claiming over 9,400 hotels. Many of those hotels are, themselves, huge. Smaller brands might join GHA Discovery for access to customers and a frequent guest program – maybe just 3 hotels or a couple of dozen and it doesn’t make sense to run your own loyalty platform but there’s huge value in customer loyalty.
But there are a ton of independent boutique hotels probably too small for GHA Discovery, and there are unique one-off short-term rentals (list on Airbnb, Vrbo, etc). And Journey looks to fill that gap. Plus, it can be more interesting to stay at a true boutique property, just as it can be nicer to stay at a GHA Discover brand than at a convention center Hilton.
The properties Journey reaches normally have no meaningful rewards ecosystem. The properties are truly independent, but Journey gives them chain loyalty mechanics and guest personalization tools.
It’s lots of very small properties and one-off units, not 200-room urban boxes, with a loyalty currency designed to work even when the property doesn’t have a second better room to comp you into and there’s no one on site to provide you free breakfast.
Journey claims over 75 brands with more than 1,400 locations. I’m told the total number of rooms is just ~ 5,000.
- Earning: At least 5 points per dollar on direct bookings and 1 point on OTA bookings, plus special offers and bonuses. Pending points can be spent immediately, e.g. your joining bonus with first stay can be spent on property during your first stay. (Percent of pending points eligible varies by status from 50% – 100%.)
Beyond their fully-participating properties they also have “Nominated” locations where members can book through Journey and still earn (but not redeem).
Points expire after two years if unused.
Credit: Journey Rewards - Redemptions: for free or discounted stays, upgrades, on-property dining and spa starting at 2,000 points. Journey commits that the “value of points at redemption will never be below $0.01 USD.” In practice they seem to deliver about 2 cents a point in value.
They offer free points pool and transfers so you can share points towards a redemption or gift your points. There’s some nod to possible future points to airline miles transfers in the future.
Properties are charged a per point issued when guests earn, and on the redemption side Journey pays the full nightly rate, rather than discounted rates that make hotels hate points guests. This makes sense when a property has just a single room or perhaps three, the assumption is the points guest is displacing a revenue guest (and there’s often no way to know, like how large chains pay average daily room rate at perhaps 90% or 95% occupancy).
Credit: Journey Rewards - Status: When you earn status you keep it for the remainder of that year and the following year. Tier levels are –
- Nomad: 18,000 points ($3,600 spend @ $5 points/$)
Navigator: 50,000 ($10,000 spend)
Ambassador: 125,000 ($25,000 spend)
Legend: 250,000 ($50,000)
Icon: invitation-onlyNomad gets a “Magical Moment” funded by the program not the hotel, offering on-property suggestions for fulfilment. Navigator gets waived resort fees, $20 on-property experience credit. Ambassadors can gift a status upgrade. Legends get a 24/7 concierge and $75 property experience credit.
Credit: Journey RewardsJourney is offering points match: for each of your loyalty accounts with airlines or hotels that you verify with them they’ll give you 500 points. That’s $5-$10 in credit, and they don’t state a maximum number of programs you can verify.
Their network is big in property count, but small in inventory. I like the idea of an earning and redemption option for small properties that historically had no loyalty program, like independent boutique hotels and short-term rentals. Points pooling and transfers are good, and the program is clearly tailored to smaller boutique outfits (versus, say, free breakfast and late check-out).
Journey says they’ve raised $15 million which is a credible start. They’re making impressive inroads signing on properties. It’s still early with guests, since they have only been in-market since summer.
I’ll do it for you, Gary. When the thot leader says ‘jump,’ we at least gotta look over the edge, throw our hands up, and say… ‘weee!!’
So if Señor Leff has 50 airline/hotel/credit card loyalty program accounts per family member in a four-person household, that could be 25,000 Journey points per person in the household and mean 100,000 points for the household? At a value of 1 cent per point for redemption purposes, that’s a $1000 for stay purposes.